Cal vs. USC, at the half

At the half,  Cal trails 10-3.

• Overall, a decent performance, about as good as can be expected.   Although we aren’t moving the ball on offense at all, at least our defense is playing well.  Keeping USC to only 10 points in the half is a pretty good job.
• Nate Longshore needs to stop the mental blunders.  As a fan, it’s been painful watching him play.  2 picks that were luckily overturned by penalties (one questionable).  Several balls short-hopped to wide open receivers.  Taking a -14 yard sack instead of throwing the ball away.  These are things you definitely cannot do against USC.  We were lucky to even be on the board at this point, as the scoring drive was kept alive almost exclusively by USC penalties.
• Once again, Pac-10 referees prove themselves to be inept.  A USC interception called back by a somewhat questionable roughing the passer call.  Then on the USC TD drive, they failed to review two crucial plays, the first on a pass going over midfield where the receiver clearly stepped out 8 yards behind where they eventually marked the play dead.  Then on the TD itself, the ball clearly was through the receiver’s arms and trapped on the ground.
• All three timeouts wasted to avoid delay of game penalties.  MANAGE THE CLOCK LONGSHORE.  As a veteran, he should know better.

In the second half, Cal needs to keep up the pressure on defense.  They need to get to QB Mark Sanchez and apply more pressure on him, and force him to throw some picks.  On offense, they need to find a way to hit receivers in stride going down field.  Short screen passes are not working at all, and Longshore isn’t hitting his open receivers.   Until they can prove to be a threat down in the passing game, the running game will suffer, and we can’t depend on USC penalties to keep our drives moving.  If Longshore can’t get it done, Tedford should give Riley a shot, since he’s been cleared by medical staff to play.